white



H. E. WH lTE.

EXPANDED METAL PRODUCT.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I0, 1913.

1 ,3 1 4,777 Patented Sept. 2, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

O Q @w H. E. WHITE.

EXPANDED METAL PRODUCT.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-10.1913.

1 ,3 1 4,777 Patented Sept. 2, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

amvemtoz WM V attoznm and -UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT E. WHITE, or YOUNGSTOWN, oHIo,AssIGNon TO THE GENERAL rmnrnoor- ING COMPANY, OFYOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

EXPANDED METAL PRODUCT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 2, 1919.

Application filed-September 10, 1918. Serial No. 789,152.

To all'whom it may concern."

Be it known .that I, HERBERT E. WHITE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Youn town, in the count of Mahoning, tate of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Expanded Metal Products, of which the following is 1 as ecification.

his invention relates to a novel and useful form of ribbed metal product possessing special utility as a self-centering and reinforcing element for cementitious bodies.

To this end, the invention has in view an expandedmetal ribbed structure having maximum strength and stiffness, while at the same time providing effective keys for the cementitious material, and also capable of being manufactured readily and economically.

With these and other general objects in view whichwill be readily apparent to those familiar with expanded-metal products of this character, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination, and arrangement' of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated, and'claimed.

Though susceptible of structural modification in minor particulars, one practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 1s a plan view of the new product.

'Fig. '2 is a cross sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan view illustrating diagrammatically the first stage of a method of producing the product.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3 illustrating another stage in the development of the product.

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic cross sectional view illustrating the final form of the product resultin from the operation of laterally spreading the metal sheet shown in Fig.

Like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several figures of .the drawings.

a the same time being reversel my former Patent No. 1,056,871, dated March 25, 1913, and may be of any depth or height, and all of the ribs of the sheet may be of the same or difl'erent'depths without affecting the distinguishing features of the present invention. Also, it may be understood that the ribs R represent the non-' contractible unslitted areas or strips of the product andgtherefore may be grooved or I not, an it ,is between every pair of such areas that the sheet is provided with an open mesh expanded section S wherein the component strands 8 stand substantially on edge. That is to say, the strands of the meshes between any two uncut areas or ribs of the sheet turn to positionswhich are incli'ned or oblique to the horizontal plane of the sheet, and moreover involve the distinct' and novel feature of all of the strandsbetween any two ribs or uncut areasbeing mclmed 1n the same direction and lyl in substantially parallel oblique planes, an at disposed 'to the inclination of the stran s in the expanded section at the opposite side of one of said ribs. It will be observed that the meshes formed by the strands 8 are substantially diamond-shape, and are disposed longitudinall of the uncut areas or ribs, said strands eing integrally joined to each other by uncut connecting webs w at spaced points.

In order to compensate for the non-contractibility of the uncut areas or ribs, it is necessary to elongate the metal in the individual strands at the time of displacing them from the slit or cut in the sheet, thereb enabling the operation of opening the slits to be uniformly carried out without imposing undue strains on the strands at any point.

One method of producing an expanded.

structure possessing the characteristic of having all of the strands between any two ribs set obliquely in arallel planes and having an inclination a l in the same direction, is indicated diagrammatically in Figs. 3, 4, and 5 of the drawings. Referring first to Fig. 3 of the drawings, it will be observed that the blank sheet which may be preliminarily formed with a series of ribs R,

and flat intervening areas 7', is subjected to the action of a slitti and expanding machine, such'as genera y disclosed in my former Patent No. 1,049,632, dated Jan. 7,

1913. This machine subjects the metal sheet to an operation. which makes separate lines of interrupted longitudinal slits aa, b-b, 0-0, d-d,ce, etcetera, arranged alternately in adjacent lines, and simultaneously displacing or offsetting to one side of the plane of: the original sheet the individual strands of metal formed by the slits. Also, as indicated, in the combined slitting and expanding operation, a desirable and necessary feature is the elongating of the metal in the strands.

It will be observed in the first place that the slitting and expanding operation is carried on simultaneously upon both sides of' every alternate uncut area or rib, so that such uncut area or rib, connecting with the expanded web upon both sides thereof, is moved with such web to one side of the original plane of the sheet, taking the form of a substantially V-shaped arch as dia-, grammatically shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings with the uncut area or rib at the center of said arch.

When the combined slitting, expanding,

' and. deformingstep is completed for every unit consisting of three uncut areas or ribs and the intervening areas, the sheet is subjected to an operation which laterally spreads the same to bring the deflected uncut areas or ribs back into substantially their original plane, and to move the strands connecting therewith into substantially the original plane of the sheet. This is diagrammatically shown in Fig. 5 of the drawings. During this operation, the strands of eachexpanded section move into substanti-ally parallel planes, so that each of the meshed strands between any two uncut areas or ribs maintain an inclination in the same direction.

I claim: A I 1. An expanded sheet metal product, comprising a plurality of parallel uncut longi+ tudinal strips coextensive 111 length with their length in the original blank, and expanded sections of material between and connecting the strips and also coextensive in length with the length of the original blank, said expanded sections consisting of connected strands of elongated metal, and all of the elongated strands between any two uncut strips having an inclination in the same direction.

'2. An expanded sheet metal product including a plurality of spaced high ribs, and expanded sections between the ribs consisting of elongated connected strands ar- 

